(dramatic drum music) - I was invited to a new show at the Point Theater in Dublin and it turned out to be one of the most memorable nights I've spent in the theater.

The force of the music, the primal power of the dancing, the beautiful symmetry of so many bodies in motion.

I think anybody who was in the audience that night realized that they were watching something unique and original.

The show of course was Riverdance.

(dramatic instrumental music) (audience applauds and cheers) - Well I suppose Riverdance the show and then there was Riverdance at the Eurovision so 25 years ago we had already had Riverdance at the Eurovision which happened in 1994 as a 6 minute and 40 second piece that surprised people.

- [Both] Ladies and gentlemen, Riverdance.

(joyful instrumental music) - The interval act at Eurovision is normally something of cultural value from that country, they didn't know what it was, they're normally quite boring but when Riverdance came on the stage it was an electrifying moment.

(audience applauds and cheers) - [Announcer] The audience are on their feet.

- The audience as one jumped to their feet and for like a sustained 4 or 5 minutes applause that in my experience of the business was unique.

- At that moment I suppose we knew that Irish dance was never going to be the same again and that maybe Irish culture was never going to be the same again.

(audience applauds and cheers) - When we had the initial sort of tidal wave response that was the time that we all thought, wow Riverdance has really had an effect, we have a number one record, we should make a show.

- [Moya] Bill Whelan, John McColgan and myself put our heads together round the table and we really worked out what the shape, form, concept of the two hour piece was going to be.

- Riverdance itself and I think actually Maria will bring something to it not only just with her talent of her dancing but also just her personality.

She has that kind of warmth which you know in a company context is really important.

- [Moya] Sure.

(enthusiastic music) - The theme was immigration and the theme was multi-cultural and the theme was changing, interchanging ideas and being to work with each other so all of the dancers didn't just sit in their own silo, they interacted with each other and the choreography was mixed up with each other.

(enthusiastic music) One year later we had a full show on in the same venue.

- Please welcome Riverdance.

(lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) - What we're doing is telling a lot of good will, a lot of high energy and we love what we're doing, the best thing about our show is that all of us would do it for nothing without any audience there and I think when you have a show like that it will live for a while.

- It exploded.

We just dragged on, held on by our knuckles to the coat tails of Riverdance, and traveled with it.

- So straight from there we went to Hammersmith which is a 6,000 seater in London and we played Hammersmith for a record number of weeks.

Then we went off and started our American tours in Radio City Music Hall and we hold the record there for the longest run of any single show.

(lively music) - [Moya] These dance forms were cultural dance forms that were used to express through history life and death and celebration and challenge.

It's a river of emotions, pathos, sorrow, joy, it brings us great joy, it brings the audience great joy.

So bringing all of that into a Broadway/mainstream entertainment stage is I think what caused the real excitement.

(dramatic music) - This was the show that announced to the world that Ireland was a cultural force to be reckoned with in the popular sense.

It made Irish dancing sexy and it made it cool.

(lively music) - [John] Irish dance, or as they call it the Riverdance is now recognized all over the world as a genuine art form and it employs thousands of people.

(lively music) - I think we are so blessed 25 years later to be able to experiment with this and to produce this new show.

- My hope and desire is that now with this new treatment the show will be reinvigorated and attractive to people who have never seen it, younger people who weren't born when it started and even more attractive to people who have seen it before, they'll also be blown away so it's the next generation, it's Riverdance: the Next Generation.

(lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) ♪ Hear my cry ♪ ♪ In my hungering search for you ♪ ♪ Taste my breath on the wind ♪ ♪ See the sky ♪ ♪ As it mirrors my colors ♪ ♪ Hints and whispers begin ♪ (wistful music) - [Man] Out of the dark we came.

Out of the night.

The first of many mornings in this new place.

When the sun rolled back the mist we rose like a strong wave on land.

Now we were the people of this place.

(wistful music) What burns through the rain and mist?

What banishes dark?

What makes the children straight and bright?

What makes the mountains sharp?

The sun is our Lord and Father.

Bright face at the gate of day.

Lifting our hearts we sing his praise.

Dance in his healing rays.

(triumphant music) (audience applauds and cheers) (wistful music) (audience applauds) ♪ Where the river foams and surges to the sea ♪ ♪ Silver figures rise to find me ♪ ♪ Wise and as daring ♪ ♪ Following the heart's cry ♪ ♪ I am the deep pool ♪ ♪ I am the dark spring ♪ ♪ Warm with a mystery ♪ ♪ I may reveal to you ♪ ♪ In time key to everything is love ♪ ♪ Flow into a deep desire ♪ ♪ Passion and desire ♪ ♪ See the eagle rise above the open plain ♪ ♪ Golden in the morning ♪ ♪ Weaving and soaring ♪ ♪ Watchful and protecting ♪ ♪ I am your shelter ♪ ♪ I will enfold you ♪ ♪ Warm with a mystery ♪ ♪ I may reveal to you ♪ ♪ In time key to everything is love ♪ ♪ Flow into a deep desire ♪ ♪ Passion and desire ♪ (audience applauds and cheers) (delightful music) (intense music) (audience applauds and cheers) - [Man] Cuchulain is dead.

Our great Cuchulain.

He was the sun of morning.

He was a fire at night.

He was a powerful story.

He was lightening in forest.

A sudden storm.

A short life.

(haunting music) (audience applauds and cheers) - [Man] Thunder and lightning batter the rocks.

The winds howl and great storms break on the forest.

Scatter the herds like grain.

Fire leaps from dark to dark.

Fear and anger leap to meet it.

We will not go down.

We will not be beaten down like grain.

(lightening cracks) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (sultry music) (audience applauds and cheers) (haunting music) (sings in foreign language) (audience applauds and cheers) (hopeful music) (joyful music) (audience applauds) (joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers) ♪ Hear my cry ♪ ♪ In my hungering search for you ♪ ♪ Taste my breath on the wind ♪ ♪ See the sky ♪ ♪ As it mirrors my colors ♪ ♪ Hints and whispers begin ♪ ♪ I am living to nourish you, cherish you ♪ ♪ I am pulsing the blood in your veins ♪ ♪ Feel the magic and power of surrender ♪ ♪ To life, Uisce Beatha ♪ ♪ Every finger is touching, searching ♪ ♪ Until your secrets come out ♪ ♪ In the dance, as it endlessly circles ♪ ♪ I linger close to your mouth ♪ ♪ I am living to nourish you, cherish you ♪ ♪ I am pulsing the blood in your veins ♪ ♪ Feel the magic and power of surrender ♪ ♪ To life, Uisce Beatha ♪ (ethereal music) (frantic music) (joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers) - With the 25th Anniversary production there is a significant change in terms of the lighting, in terms of the set, in terms of the content on the screen, in terms of some of the costumes, in terms of the running order of the show, in terms of the casting of the show.

And for everybody that is part of Riverdance 25 there is absolutely an understanding and an opportunity and also a responsibility on each and every single one of us to make Riverdance be the best it's ever been.

In the same way as Manchester City or Liverpool or any of these guys bring in new players to help energize and fuel that next generation, the same way as the Lakers or anybody out in America, those professional sports teams, that's the way we look at ourselves, we look at ourselves as a professional sports team trying to be the best team in the world.

You would have went around and caught on to Peter.

For the most part it's practicing it so much so that you can't get it wrong.

And its making sure that the communication is clear between every single dancer as to where they're moving, when they're moving, what they're supposed to be thinking, what they should be visualizing, what they should be feeling on stage so that the audience feels it in the auditorium, where their toes are supposed to be placed, how high their legs come up, how low their legs go down.

There's so many aspects to make it as perfect as it can be.

- We've been Irish dance and when we were four, five, six so we kind of grew up trying to be this Riverdance style of dancer.

In terms of the troupe coming together and having to dance at exactly the same speed every night, that takes hours and hours of rehearsals.

(shoes tapping) - When it comes down to it the sheer speed of tap, it comes over years and years of training.

(shouts) Some people have been measured up to 40 taps per second.

I know some of the solos probably range between 20 and 35 per second.

I mean I've been dancing for, what, 24 years now, and even then I'm still trying to get faster and speed is one thing, there's execution as well.

So sometimes you'll see when you do go really fast you lose your technique, but it's the uniqueness and the presentation of the feet as well, at that speed, that's really difficult.

Right now you're seeing in the world there's such a huge thing about inclusion and acceptance of everyone for who they are, whether it's race, religion, sexuality, and Riverdance is all about the sharing of cultures.

(group cheers) - Before the show starts when we're warming up the Irish boys come and jam with us when we're tapping and we all kind of like mesh our stuff together, it's good.

Never thought I'd Irish dance ever in my life but.

- It's nerve-wracking because not only is it a new style but you're also doing it next to professional Irish dancers who are world champions and they're the best at what they do so the pressure is on.

But saying that I absolutely love it and I'm loving to learn new styles.

(shoes tapping) - We are like a big family, and the energy we're getting on the stage is very inspiring for dancing.

Not only with Irish, we have different types of dance and learn from each other, and it's amazing.

- It has always been gratifying to me to see how Irish traditional musicians and dancers in Riverdance have embraced the fact they they're in a show where you have flamenco dancers and where you have Russian dancers and jazz tappers and you have that sort of coming together of different forms which has a respect for its own form and a curiosity about the other.

America has created an art form with jazz which combines something that we do use in Riverdance too, which is that invitation to musicians to actually improvise.

(thoughtful music) - These are called the uillean pipes.

Uillean is the Irish word for elbow.

So you pump the air from the bellows into the bag and then this here is called the chanter.

And then here you have the drones, so the drones are kind of like an accompaniment and then you have the regulators that you play with your wrist, just to add something else into the mix.

(haunting uillean music) I love playing slow airs as a piper.

Queen of Cuchulain especially just always moves me, the way Bill wrote the air, it's just impossible not to feel anything when you're playing it.

("Queen of Cuchulain") - A couple came up to me one night after a performance in England and said that listening to the pipes air in Riverdance had helped them to grieve for their son, who had died the previous year.

And for them to say that and for the music to have reached people in that way was something that none of us really ever expected, and it was lovely to hear.

("Queen of Cuchulain") So music as a non-verbal tool, it's extraordinarily powerful and it reaches into parts of the human psyche I think that we don't have language for, and where language fails music steps in.

- [Man] No life is forever.

We found and fought here.

We loved and died here.

We have seen smoke of war climb from our fields of grain.

A stain over the sun.

The crops wither.

The bones of hunger walk the sunken roads in the black rain of ruin.

Whole generations lift now to depart.

The land has failed us.

The dark soldiers appear against us.

In dance and song we gift and mourn our children.

They carry us over the ocean in dance and song.

(joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers) (weeping music) ♪ Now I will soon depart ♪ ♪ With an aching heart ♪ ♪ To a land that's far from here ♪ ♪ There I will hope and yearn ♪ ♪ For a safe return ♪ ♪ To the home I hold so dear ♪ ♪ Lift the wings that carry me away from here and ♪ ♪ Fill the sails that break the line to home ♪ ♪ But when I'm miles and miles apart from you ♪ ♪ I'm beside you when I think of you, a Stróirín ♪ ♪ And I'm with you as I dream of you, a Stróirín ♪ ♪ And this song will bring me near to you ♪ ♪ A Stróirín a Ghrá ♪ (audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) (audience applauds) (sorrowful music) - [Man] Dawn and the ships are leaving.

A lover's grief is lifting on the tide, and heart's too young for sorrow torn asunder.

The cruel ocean's deep and dark and wide.

(sorrowful music) Tall and straight my mother taught me.

This is how we dance.

Tall and straight my father taught me.

This is how we dance.

Battering feet on the city street.

In pools of light on street corners.

The proud bright carnival of the poor.

(shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (audience applauds and cheers) (audience applauds and cheers) (audience applauds and cheers) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) (haunting music) - [Man] Over the rooftops the music calling.

The air familiar but not our own.

Like something out of a storybook.

Somebody dancing the memory of snow.

(haunting music) (audience applauds) (joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers) - [Man] Cry of an infant.

Heartbeat of the world.

Storm against ship.

Heartbeat of the world.

Heel against floor and wave upon shore.

Heartbeat of the world.

Sigh of a lover.

Heartbeat of the world.

Cry of a mother.

Heartbeat of the world.

Oh unstopped.

Heartbeat of the world.

(mysterious music) (audience applauds and cheers) (triumphant music) (audience applauds and cheers) ♪ Into the river that had been a stream ♪ ♪ There fell a tear ♪ ♪ A single tear ♪ ♪ The loveliest of all tears ♪ ♪ The loveliest of all tears ♪ ♪ A thousand of tears had come eon her ♪ ♪ A thousand of tears had come eon her ♪ ♪ And she was stuck on dancing ♪ ♪ She was stuck on dancing ♪ ♪ And her muddied name was ♪ ♪ Mississippi Mississippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ Mississippi Mississippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ Riversippi Riversippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ River Liffey River Liffey Anna Livia ♪ (frantic music) ♪ Mississippi Mississippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ Mississippi Mississippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ Riversippi Riversippi Anna Livia ♪ ♪ River Liffey River Liffey Anna Livia ♪ (frantic music) ♪ Amazon the Liffey and the shimmer and the ripple ♪ ♪ And the Volga and the Fergus and the Tagus and the Thames ♪ ♪ Uisce in the Shannon and the Chico Colorado ♪ ♪ And the Apalachicola Chatthooche and the Seine ♪ ♪ Pooling and a pouring and a flooding and a flushing ♪ ♪ And a pooling and a pouring and a flooding and a flushing ♪ ♪ Riversippi Riversippi Anna Livi Anna Livi ♪ ♪ Riversippi Riversippi Anna Livi Anna Livi ♪ ♪ Shimmer in the Riverrun ♪ ♪ Anna Livia ♪ (audience applauds and cheers) (haunting music) - [Man] And after all the moon over city and forest is everywhere the same.

In the old land it silvers fields of grain just as it does here.

The rivers everywhere run down to the sea.

And the land everywhere takes life from the river.

It is all a journey.

From one land to the next.

From one life to another.

A generation later, that emigrant's child stands for the first time on the old land.

Memory rich in song.

The heart come home.

(haunting music) (lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) (proud drum music) (audience applauds and cheers) (lively music) (audience applauds and cheers) (high energy music) (shoes tapping) (audience applauds and cheers) (proud music) (shoes tapping) (joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers) (proud music) (audience applauds and cheers) (joyful music) (audience applauds and cheers)